Here is an excellent example of a personality feature article with a news hook (in this case, "time is running out.") This is an excerpt from the Washington Post. To read the entire article click here.
Evangelist Charles Colson’s final mission: Spiritually cloning himself
Charles Colson assembles the newest members of his Christian army at a Loudoun County convention hall on a winter Saturday.
Former Nixon aide-turned-evangelist embarks on his final mission.
Seated before the aging Watergate-era felon-turned-evangelical leader are dozens of handpicked disciples: a woman who sings at patriotic events, a sports psychology professor, a real estate developer, a pharmaceutical salesman.
They’ve spent the year — and as much as $4,000 — reading the books Colson reads, watching the movies he watches, praying the way he prays. It’s all part of an ambitious effort by Colson to replicate his spiritual DNA and ensure that his vision of Christianity doesn’t die when he does.
“This is the time for us to metastasize and impact society!” the gravelly-voiced former Nixon aide tells his rapt audience. “And this is a really, really urgent hour.”
For decades after emerging from a federal penitentiary, Colson focused on building what has become the world’s biggest prison ministry. Now, at 79, he has shifted his attention to the final mission of his remarkable life: saving what he regards as true Christianity from American extinction.
Time is running out.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Good Example of Investigative Article
This article is a good example of some nice investigative reporting--note the number of sources and the sidebar article that compares situations in neighboring states.
Allegheny River towns fight to save locks
By Mary Ann Thomas, ASPINWALL HERALD
Barges of scrap metal, coal and petroleum products predictably lumber along the Allegheny River.
Towns, water companies and industries draw 524 million gallons daily from that river.
And in the summer, several thousand pleasure boats and personal watercraft zip through its waters, with some passing through its locks to the more rural and wooded pools in the upper reaches of the Allegheny in Armstrong County.
All benefit from the river, but only the commercial barge traffic has paid directly -- via a marine diesel fuel tax -- for upkeep of the Allegheny's locks and dams, which were installed in the 1920s and 1930s to turn erratic pockets of deep and shallow water into reliable pools of slack water.
Therein lies one of the problems with paying for the $8 million annual price tag just to operate the locks on the Allegheny.
When Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to build those locks and dams, it was to meet the needs of businesses to ship commodities, not to help municipalities or industries draw water or sewage authorities to release wastewater or boaters to enjoy a little water skiing.
President Obama's proposed 2012 fiscal budget slashes the corps' Allegheny budget by 50 percent. At least two locks, No. 8, just north of Kittanning, and No. 9 in Rimer, will likely close to recreational boaters and be put in "caretaker status."
Commercial vessels will be able to pass through all locks by appointment.
The corps will decide which locks will see cuts in operating hours on March 31.
But no matter where the ax falls, it's another lean budget and another lean year. Maintenance will be deferred on the aging locks' structures, which are in poor condition, according to Dave Sneberger, chief of the corps' locks and dams branch, Pittsburgh District.
At two public meetings last month, boaters told the corps they are willing to pay a fee and do whatever it takes to keep the all the locks open.
With five locks in Armstrong County, the county commissioners there are rounding up boaters, businesses and state and federal lawmakers to assemble a public/private partnership to help keep the locks open in the upper pools.
They are looking for any new source of revenue to keep their county's waterways open.
Budgets running dry
The money hasn't run out just because of tight economic times.
The corps has been threatening to close some of the Allegheny's locks for decades. It cut operating hours at Locks 5 through 9 in the 1980s as the volume of commercial boat traffic tumbled.
Federal funding for operating the locks and dams is based on commercial tonnage floated down the river.
The Allegheny ranks low in priority. For example, 10 times more cargo passes through the Emsworth lock on the Ohio River each year than does the entire Allegheny lock system, according to Col. William Graham, the Coprs' Pittsburgh District engineer.
So the question is: Where to get more money, and who else can pay?
"I don't think anybody can be dragged kicking and screaming to make a contribution unless it is in their best interest to do so," said James McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh.
"I think people have got to understand what is at risk, and they have to make that calculation of what would be the catastrophic loss if they would lose the pools. And, is it worth contributing to keep them open?"
For example, the water companies and authorities that draw from the river and its aquifers aren't bound to the fate of the locks. And the fixed dams on the Allegheny are for navigation, not to control water flow or flooding. That's controlled by reservoirs upstream.
But they benefit from the pools of water and are in no danger, presently, of losing them. So why would they pay for them?
"Municipal water customers of systems that draw from the Ohio River Basin have the benefit of using a source that the Army Corps of Engineer's calls the 'most reliable water system in the country,'" said Don Amadee of the Municipal Authority of Buffalo Township.
"Floods and droughts and pollution still occur, obviously, but our water quality and availability are rarely a concern," Amadee said. "Not every system has that luxury. I don't want my customers to have to start paying for the privilege of using the river. But, if this comes to pass and they start to define who the river users are, we would certainly qualify."
Businesses continue to use the river for water intakes, water cooling and discharges. But they don't see a danger in the pool of water going away, said Mark Devinney, vice president of Freeport Terminals in Freeport. His company ships commodities down the river such as sand, scrap, fertilizer, grain and petroleum-based products as far as New Orleans and Texas.
"In the present economic climate, nobody would be comfortable with additional taxes and user fees, especially municipalities," Devinney said. "They're hard pressed.
"The pools are there, and they don't have a dog in that particular fight, directly," Devinney added.
McCarville disagrees, at least in terms of the long run.
The Allegheny River has weathered lean budgets for years, accumulating a backlog of almost $49 million in critical maintenance, according to Dan Jones, spokesman of the Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District.
And the proposed federal budget for the 2012 fiscal year pays nothing into maintenance for the aging navigation system.
Just last year, the corps had to shut down a portion of Lock 2 at Highland Park when a section of one of the concrete lock walls crumbled into the river.
As the navigation system is starved for repairs, McCarville fears that the state of decay will eventually render the structures unreliable for use for generations to come.
"To put something in caretaker status allows for further deterioration," said McCarville.
"We're looking at saving short-term operations and maintenance costs and not preserving the valuable capital asset that might play a much greater role in the future."
And the corps should modernize the locks, he said.
"It's like they have to pay more to fix that '57 Chevy instead of it selling it off and buying something a little more modern."
The dams are in good shape, according to Sneberger. "At this time, maintenance of the pools on the Allegheny is not an immediate concern," he said. "But 10 years from now, it might be."
The immediate concern is the lack of maintenance of the lock structures, Sneberger said.
"If we have a major breakdown," he said, "we won't be able to use the lock until it's fixed."
Something old, something new
Since federal funding is based on commercial traffic, some observers want to increase the commercial traffic.
Armstrong County Commissioner Jim Scahill and state Rep. Jeff Pyle, R-Ford City, said they need to spur more commerce on the river so it gets more federal funding.
They are looking to more dredging operations, which have trickled down to almost nothing because of environmental and other regulations, according to Scahill and Pyle.
"We've got to re-establish commercial traffic," Pyle said. "I'm not willing to go after the municipalities."
Pyle wants to help the dredging industry steer through some of the regulations and dredge the sand and gravel and move it again through Armstrong County's upper pools.
And there could be new river commerce with the Marcellus shale natural gas boom, they say.
Businesses have been inquiring about transporting Marcellus fracking water via local rivers. Devinney already provides water transport of fracking sand for the industry.
"Our area stands poised to explode with Marcellus shale well development," Pyle said. "We need to have the ability to move sand and chemicals along the river."
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire recognizes not only the dilemma with the current corps budget, but the importance of the Allegheny's navigation system to attract new business.
"Our ability to increase waterways traffic is directly related to the status of the structure of each entity on the river," he said. "If people are unsatisfied with the long-term prognosis, they'll avoid our region all together."
To prevent the Allegheny's locks and dams from going into worse disrepair, Altmire and others say more money has to be added to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, which is paid in to by a 20-cent-per-gallon diesel fuel tax levied on the commercial towing industry.
The fund pays for 50 percent of the federal capital investment in the nation's inland waterways and is "grossly insufficient to meet all of the demands," said McCarville.
"The Port of Pittsburgh is working with operators to come to an agreement with the trust fund," Altmire said. "There has to be recognition and more funding in the trust fund because state and federal governments are definitely cutting spending."
McCarville reports that the operators agreed to increase their contribution to the trust fund by up to nine cents a gallon for the modernization of lock chambers.
However, it also called on the federal government to pick up 100 percent of the cost of the dam repairs and smaller lock improvements, according to McCarville. That plan is has been rejected by the administration, he said.
"Now, we're going directly to Congress to see if they can establish the new plan for the trust fund," he said.
Proposed user fees
There is one funding source ripe for a toll or user fee: for pleasure boats.
Although recreational boaters pay a boat registration fee to the state Fish and Boat Commission, none of that money goes toward the river's navigation system, which the boaters use for free.
During the corps' public meetings last month, a number of boaters suggested an EZ pass system, the toll collection used by the Pennsylvania Turnpike, or an extra fee for their boat registration.
Pyle is investigating a fee or toll system for the locks.
"I want to get some kind of numbers drummed up including how many recreational boaters could pay in," he said. "There's a lot of calculating."
If lawmakers and boaters are serious about establishing a lock fee, it would require congressional approval to allow the corps to use those funds, according to Lenna Hawkins, deputy district engineer for the corps' Pittsburgh District.
A nonprofit group or a governmental entity such as a county or a state could be set up to collect fees toward lock operations, she said.
"There could be a host of funding streams, and we are going to search what has been done across the country," she said.
Hawkins and Col. Graham have already spoken to local members of Congress about the prospect.
"They all seem supportive of a potential public-private partnership," she said.
In the meantime, the Armstrong County commissioners are trying to gather stakeholders, local businesses, and boaters to form a coalition.
"If there's a partnership," Commissioner Jim Scahill said, "I can't see the state of Pennsylvania not being involved.
"Our struggle is to get everyone in the room together and some common voice out of it."
Scahill concedes that they still need to find a "champion -- someone to go to bat for us nationally."
But it's early in the game, with the Army corps cuts only proposed last month.
"We need to process this properly," Scahill said, "and have to be given the time to do it."
Same scenario plays out in other parts of country
The demise of commercial boat traffic and resulting drop in federal funding for inland lock systems has played out in other parts of the country.
It's the same tale as the Allegheny River.
The typical scenario: Commercial traffic vanishes, federal funding is cut, locks decay and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reduces service. Then it puts the facilities in "caretaker status" and maybe transfers the facilities to state or local government.
In the past 20 years, the corps has divested 24 locks to states and municipalities, according to Jim Walker, navigation manager at the Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington.
"We're looking at reducing federal expenditures at low, commercial-use locks either by turning them over to a non-federal operator or by reducing operating hours and applying the savings to keep high commercial-use locks operating," Walker said.
In Kentucky, the state has closed most of the locks on the Kentucky River because of disrepair and lack of funding.
Conversely, the Muskingum River in Ohio still has its locks open because the state considers it a prime recreational area.
In both cases, a state agency stepped in to pay for or take over the locks and established fees.
There also are examples of private-public partnership such as the Willamette River in Oregon, where a coalition formed to help bring in more money to the lock system.
Kentucky River, Kentucky
The Kentucky River Authority, a state agency, was established in 1986 to take over 10 locks and dams from the Corps of Engineers.
At that point, there was little commercial boat traffic and the locks and dams were put in caretaker status.
A drought in 1986 caused some restrictions for drinking water from the river, motivating the state to protect and improve the waterway.
The state later closed its locks because of the maintenance issues, according to David Hamilton, an engineer at the river authority in Frankfort, Ky.
Concrete barriers were installed to ensure the pools remained, in case a lock chamber gave way.
"With all our dams we have water supply in each pool," said Hamilton. "The concern is if gates fail that would jeopardize the communities' water supply."
The state funds the operations of the lock-and-dam system with a fee passed on to water users, with a typical household paying 25 to 35 cents a month on their water bills, according to Hamilton.
That is changing.
"We've used water money specifically for maintaining the water supply portion of the river," he said. "Now we're looking to change to have water user fees to pay for recreational boat traffic at locks, 1, 2, 3 and 4.
"There's been a good push for it to encourage recreational boat traffic for economic reasons," Hamilton said.
Muskingum River, Ohio
A system of 11 locks and dams completed by 1841 made the Muskingum River navigable from Marietta to Dresden and connected to the Ohio and Erie Canal.
The locks and dams deteriorated in late 19th century and the Army Corps of Engineers took them over and restored the structures. Then after damages from a flood in 1913, the Army corps spent five years repairing the system, which never again flourished commercially.
In 1948, the corps decided not to provide upkeep for the navigation system. Residents pressured the state to take over the lock system in 1958 and restore the locks for recreational boat traffic.
Currently, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources manages the system.
The state renovated much of the system; only the northern-most lock, no. 11, near Dresden is closed, due to deterioration and lack of traffic, said Mike Jarvis, assistant park manager of the Muskingum River Parkway.
"The locks didn't have near the number of boats that were in the lower part of the river, and we used what money we had at the more heavily used locks," he said.
In 1991, the state introduced lock passage fees to helped supplement funding.
The river averages about 8,000 recreational boats per season, with the locks operating from May through October on Fridays through Mondays.
Jarvis said that a number of factors account for the longevity of the system.
"The recreational boaters have a strong driving interest," he said. "They're the ones that insist to move forward.
"And the state parks department is dedicated to preserving the cultural history of it," Jarvis said. "We have history on our side."
The 160-year-old lock system is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Read more: Allegheny River towns fight to save locks - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/news/s_728310.html#ixzz1HEeWqGFu
Allegheny River towns fight to save locks
By Mary Ann Thomas, ASPINWALL HERALD
Barges of scrap metal, coal and petroleum products predictably lumber along the Allegheny River.
Towns, water companies and industries draw 524 million gallons daily from that river.
And in the summer, several thousand pleasure boats and personal watercraft zip through its waters, with some passing through its locks to the more rural and wooded pools in the upper reaches of the Allegheny in Armstrong County.
All benefit from the river, but only the commercial barge traffic has paid directly -- via a marine diesel fuel tax -- for upkeep of the Allegheny's locks and dams, which were installed in the 1920s and 1930s to turn erratic pockets of deep and shallow water into reliable pools of slack water.
Therein lies one of the problems with paying for the $8 million annual price tag just to operate the locks on the Allegheny.
When Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to build those locks and dams, it was to meet the needs of businesses to ship commodities, not to help municipalities or industries draw water or sewage authorities to release wastewater or boaters to enjoy a little water skiing.
President Obama's proposed 2012 fiscal budget slashes the corps' Allegheny budget by 50 percent. At least two locks, No. 8, just north of Kittanning, and No. 9 in Rimer, will likely close to recreational boaters and be put in "caretaker status."
Commercial vessels will be able to pass through all locks by appointment.
The corps will decide which locks will see cuts in operating hours on March 31.
But no matter where the ax falls, it's another lean budget and another lean year. Maintenance will be deferred on the aging locks' structures, which are in poor condition, according to Dave Sneberger, chief of the corps' locks and dams branch, Pittsburgh District.
At two public meetings last month, boaters told the corps they are willing to pay a fee and do whatever it takes to keep the all the locks open.
With five locks in Armstrong County, the county commissioners there are rounding up boaters, businesses and state and federal lawmakers to assemble a public/private partnership to help keep the locks open in the upper pools.
They are looking for any new source of revenue to keep their county's waterways open.
Budgets running dry
The money hasn't run out just because of tight economic times.
The corps has been threatening to close some of the Allegheny's locks for decades. It cut operating hours at Locks 5 through 9 in the 1980s as the volume of commercial boat traffic tumbled.
Federal funding for operating the locks and dams is based on commercial tonnage floated down the river.
The Allegheny ranks low in priority. For example, 10 times more cargo passes through the Emsworth lock on the Ohio River each year than does the entire Allegheny lock system, according to Col. William Graham, the Coprs' Pittsburgh District engineer.
So the question is: Where to get more money, and who else can pay?
"I don't think anybody can be dragged kicking and screaming to make a contribution unless it is in their best interest to do so," said James McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh.
"I think people have got to understand what is at risk, and they have to make that calculation of what would be the catastrophic loss if they would lose the pools. And, is it worth contributing to keep them open?"
For example, the water companies and authorities that draw from the river and its aquifers aren't bound to the fate of the locks. And the fixed dams on the Allegheny are for navigation, not to control water flow or flooding. That's controlled by reservoirs upstream.
But they benefit from the pools of water and are in no danger, presently, of losing them. So why would they pay for them?
"Municipal water customers of systems that draw from the Ohio River Basin have the benefit of using a source that the Army Corps of Engineer's calls the 'most reliable water system in the country,'" said Don Amadee of the Municipal Authority of Buffalo Township.
"Floods and droughts and pollution still occur, obviously, but our water quality and availability are rarely a concern," Amadee said. "Not every system has that luxury. I don't want my customers to have to start paying for the privilege of using the river. But, if this comes to pass and they start to define who the river users are, we would certainly qualify."
Businesses continue to use the river for water intakes, water cooling and discharges. But they don't see a danger in the pool of water going away, said Mark Devinney, vice president of Freeport Terminals in Freeport. His company ships commodities down the river such as sand, scrap, fertilizer, grain and petroleum-based products as far as New Orleans and Texas.
"In the present economic climate, nobody would be comfortable with additional taxes and user fees, especially municipalities," Devinney said. "They're hard pressed.
"The pools are there, and they don't have a dog in that particular fight, directly," Devinney added.
McCarville disagrees, at least in terms of the long run.
The Allegheny River has weathered lean budgets for years, accumulating a backlog of almost $49 million in critical maintenance, according to Dan Jones, spokesman of the Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District.
And the proposed federal budget for the 2012 fiscal year pays nothing into maintenance for the aging navigation system.
Just last year, the corps had to shut down a portion of Lock 2 at Highland Park when a section of one of the concrete lock walls crumbled into the river.
As the navigation system is starved for repairs, McCarville fears that the state of decay will eventually render the structures unreliable for use for generations to come.
"To put something in caretaker status allows for further deterioration," said McCarville.
"We're looking at saving short-term operations and maintenance costs and not preserving the valuable capital asset that might play a much greater role in the future."
And the corps should modernize the locks, he said.
"It's like they have to pay more to fix that '57 Chevy instead of it selling it off and buying something a little more modern."
The dams are in good shape, according to Sneberger. "At this time, maintenance of the pools on the Allegheny is not an immediate concern," he said. "But 10 years from now, it might be."
The immediate concern is the lack of maintenance of the lock structures, Sneberger said.
"If we have a major breakdown," he said, "we won't be able to use the lock until it's fixed."
Something old, something new
Since federal funding is based on commercial traffic, some observers want to increase the commercial traffic.
Armstrong County Commissioner Jim Scahill and state Rep. Jeff Pyle, R-Ford City, said they need to spur more commerce on the river so it gets more federal funding.
They are looking to more dredging operations, which have trickled down to almost nothing because of environmental and other regulations, according to Scahill and Pyle.
"We've got to re-establish commercial traffic," Pyle said. "I'm not willing to go after the municipalities."
Pyle wants to help the dredging industry steer through some of the regulations and dredge the sand and gravel and move it again through Armstrong County's upper pools.
And there could be new river commerce with the Marcellus shale natural gas boom, they say.
Businesses have been inquiring about transporting Marcellus fracking water via local rivers. Devinney already provides water transport of fracking sand for the industry.
"Our area stands poised to explode with Marcellus shale well development," Pyle said. "We need to have the ability to move sand and chemicals along the river."
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire recognizes not only the dilemma with the current corps budget, but the importance of the Allegheny's navigation system to attract new business.
"Our ability to increase waterways traffic is directly related to the status of the structure of each entity on the river," he said. "If people are unsatisfied with the long-term prognosis, they'll avoid our region all together."
To prevent the Allegheny's locks and dams from going into worse disrepair, Altmire and others say more money has to be added to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, which is paid in to by a 20-cent-per-gallon diesel fuel tax levied on the commercial towing industry.
The fund pays for 50 percent of the federal capital investment in the nation's inland waterways and is "grossly insufficient to meet all of the demands," said McCarville.
"The Port of Pittsburgh is working with operators to come to an agreement with the trust fund," Altmire said. "There has to be recognition and more funding in the trust fund because state and federal governments are definitely cutting spending."
McCarville reports that the operators agreed to increase their contribution to the trust fund by up to nine cents a gallon for the modernization of lock chambers.
However, it also called on the federal government to pick up 100 percent of the cost of the dam repairs and smaller lock improvements, according to McCarville. That plan is has been rejected by the administration, he said.
"Now, we're going directly to Congress to see if they can establish the new plan for the trust fund," he said.
Proposed user fees
There is one funding source ripe for a toll or user fee: for pleasure boats.
Although recreational boaters pay a boat registration fee to the state Fish and Boat Commission, none of that money goes toward the river's navigation system, which the boaters use for free.
During the corps' public meetings last month, a number of boaters suggested an EZ pass system, the toll collection used by the Pennsylvania Turnpike, or an extra fee for their boat registration.
Pyle is investigating a fee or toll system for the locks.
"I want to get some kind of numbers drummed up including how many recreational boaters could pay in," he said. "There's a lot of calculating."
If lawmakers and boaters are serious about establishing a lock fee, it would require congressional approval to allow the corps to use those funds, according to Lenna Hawkins, deputy district engineer for the corps' Pittsburgh District.
A nonprofit group or a governmental entity such as a county or a state could be set up to collect fees toward lock operations, she said.
"There could be a host of funding streams, and we are going to search what has been done across the country," she said.
Hawkins and Col. Graham have already spoken to local members of Congress about the prospect.
"They all seem supportive of a potential public-private partnership," she said.
In the meantime, the Armstrong County commissioners are trying to gather stakeholders, local businesses, and boaters to form a coalition.
"If there's a partnership," Commissioner Jim Scahill said, "I can't see the state of Pennsylvania not being involved.
"Our struggle is to get everyone in the room together and some common voice out of it."
Scahill concedes that they still need to find a "champion -- someone to go to bat for us nationally."
But it's early in the game, with the Army corps cuts only proposed last month.
"We need to process this properly," Scahill said, "and have to be given the time to do it."
Same scenario plays out in other parts of country
The demise of commercial boat traffic and resulting drop in federal funding for inland lock systems has played out in other parts of the country.
It's the same tale as the Allegheny River.
The typical scenario: Commercial traffic vanishes, federal funding is cut, locks decay and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reduces service. Then it puts the facilities in "caretaker status" and maybe transfers the facilities to state or local government.
In the past 20 years, the corps has divested 24 locks to states and municipalities, according to Jim Walker, navigation manager at the Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington.
"We're looking at reducing federal expenditures at low, commercial-use locks either by turning them over to a non-federal operator or by reducing operating hours and applying the savings to keep high commercial-use locks operating," Walker said.
In Kentucky, the state has closed most of the locks on the Kentucky River because of disrepair and lack of funding.
Conversely, the Muskingum River in Ohio still has its locks open because the state considers it a prime recreational area.
In both cases, a state agency stepped in to pay for or take over the locks and established fees.
There also are examples of private-public partnership such as the Willamette River in Oregon, where a coalition formed to help bring in more money to the lock system.
Kentucky River, Kentucky
The Kentucky River Authority, a state agency, was established in 1986 to take over 10 locks and dams from the Corps of Engineers.
At that point, there was little commercial boat traffic and the locks and dams were put in caretaker status.
A drought in 1986 caused some restrictions for drinking water from the river, motivating the state to protect and improve the waterway.
The state later closed its locks because of the maintenance issues, according to David Hamilton, an engineer at the river authority in Frankfort, Ky.
Concrete barriers were installed to ensure the pools remained, in case a lock chamber gave way.
"With all our dams we have water supply in each pool," said Hamilton. "The concern is if gates fail that would jeopardize the communities' water supply."
The state funds the operations of the lock-and-dam system with a fee passed on to water users, with a typical household paying 25 to 35 cents a month on their water bills, according to Hamilton.
That is changing.
"We've used water money specifically for maintaining the water supply portion of the river," he said. "Now we're looking to change to have water user fees to pay for recreational boat traffic at locks, 1, 2, 3 and 4.
"There's been a good push for it to encourage recreational boat traffic for economic reasons," Hamilton said.
Muskingum River, Ohio
A system of 11 locks and dams completed by 1841 made the Muskingum River navigable from Marietta to Dresden and connected to the Ohio and Erie Canal.
The locks and dams deteriorated in late 19th century and the Army Corps of Engineers took them over and restored the structures. Then after damages from a flood in 1913, the Army corps spent five years repairing the system, which never again flourished commercially.
In 1948, the corps decided not to provide upkeep for the navigation system. Residents pressured the state to take over the lock system in 1958 and restore the locks for recreational boat traffic.
Currently, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources manages the system.
The state renovated much of the system; only the northern-most lock, no. 11, near Dresden is closed, due to deterioration and lack of traffic, said Mike Jarvis, assistant park manager of the Muskingum River Parkway.
"The locks didn't have near the number of boats that were in the lower part of the river, and we used what money we had at the more heavily used locks," he said.
In 1991, the state introduced lock passage fees to helped supplement funding.
The river averages about 8,000 recreational boats per season, with the locks operating from May through October on Fridays through Mondays.
Jarvis said that a number of factors account for the longevity of the system.
"The recreational boaters have a strong driving interest," he said. "They're the ones that insist to move forward.
"And the state parks department is dedicated to preserving the cultural history of it," Jarvis said. "We have history on our side."
The 160-year-old lock system is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Read more: Allegheny River towns fight to save locks - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/news/s_728310.html#ixzz1HEeWqGFu
Saturday, March 19, 2011
HERE's an Interesting Ethical Issue!
Detroit News publisher pens front-page apology
The editor and publisher of The Detroit News has written a front-page apology over the newspaper's decision to change sections of a scathing review of the Chrysler 200 after an advertiser complained.
Jon Wolman wrote in the Saturday column that he owed readers and the writer "an explanation and an apology for the lapse that raised questions about our credibility."
Wolman says former critic Scott Burgess was asked to change several passages of his review of the car promoted in a popular Super Bowl television ad featuring rapper Eminem. Wolman says that happened after an advertiser complained about "acerbic and disrespectful" material.
Burgess says he resigned Wednesday after meeting with Wolman.
The original review appeared in the newspaper's March 10 print edition and changes were made to the online version.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The editor and publisher of The Detroit News has written a front-page apology over the newspaper's decision to change sections of a scathing review of the Chrysler 200 after an advertiser complained.
Jon Wolman wrote in the Saturday column that he owed readers and the writer "an explanation and an apology for the lapse that raised questions about our credibility."
Wolman says former critic Scott Burgess was asked to change several passages of his review of the car promoted in a popular Super Bowl television ad featuring rapper Eminem. Wolman says that happened after an advertiser complained about "acerbic and disrespectful" material.
Burgess says he resigned Wednesday after meeting with Wolman.
The original review appeared in the newspaper's March 10 print edition and changes were made to the online version.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughtful Analysis of the Pew Report
Here's a thoughtful and stimulating analysis of the recent Pew Report which gives us a great deal to think about regarding the future of our various news media.
Rash Report: New news study shows Web's peril, promise
Many may view the shifts in the news industry as inside baseball -- but the very ability to be informed is in play.
By JOHN RASH, Star Tribune
Bit by bit, byte by byte, Americans are increasingly turning to the Internet for information, according to the annual "State of the News Media" report released Monday by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).
In answer to where they received "most of their news about national and international issues," only online readership rose from the prior year.
It increased 17 percent, while every other platform fell: local TV (-1.5 percent), network TV (-3.4 percent), printed newspapers (-5 percent), radio (-6 percent), magazines (-8.9 percent) and cable TV (-13.7 percent).
The growth in Internet usage is making the future of journalism an increasingly dramatic story line. And it's one with considerable consequences.
For the information industry, to be sure, but also for democracy and the informed electorate it depends on.
But so far this isn't a political story. In fact, despite the drumbeat from critics on the right and left, Americans aren't rejecting the mainstream media news model.
Indeed, PEJ found that the vast majority of what's consumed online is original reporting from professional media organizations, including newspapers and TV stations.
Clearly transformational technologies have changed how news is consumed. In the process, Internet intermediaries -- social networks like Facebook, device makers such as Apple and aggregators like Google -- are complicating efforts to extract revenue from readership, listenership and viewership.
This emerging shift in the media business model means that "the news industry is becoming more of a follower and less of a leader in these new layers of relationships," said Amy Mitchell, deputy director of PEJ and one of the coauthors of the report.
As with any relationship, the one between media content and distribution is two-sided. But that doesn't mean it is equal.
"This behavior pattern, the extent to which people are getting this online content from legacy providers, is a major part of the problem," said Mitchell, speaking of the challenge of longstanding mainstream media models.
"Because as people are moving online at a more rapid pace than ever before, the news industry that they are consuming has yet to find a way to create a significant revenue stream from those consumers."
Not all media suffers similarly. The PEJ reports that in 2010, revenue actually rose 17 percent for local TV, 8.4 percent for cable TV and 6.6 percent for network TV. That's in part because of TV's law of supply and demand.
The supply of commercials is about the same (despite what it seems like from your couch), but viewers are down. So even if advertising demand is static, fewer viewers per program means advertisers have to buy more commercials just to reach the same audience.
And thanks to a surge in spending on campaign ads made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United case, demand wasn't static. It was high, particularly for local TV.
Newspapers get relatively little campaign spending. And they don't have chronological commercial limitations like TV.
Newspaper revenues slid 6.4 percent in a year and 48 percent in four years. Nationally, circulation eroded 5 percent daily and 4.5 percent on Sundays.
This corrosive combination of lower revenues and circulation led to staffing cuts of another 3 to 4 percent last year, which was actually an improvement over previous years.
But the news isn't all bad for newspapers. Indeed, PEJ reports that when print and online readership is combined, many newspapers have larger audiences than ever before.
That's the case with the Star Tribune, which has also managed to record some recent circulation success. The paper is expected to report a circulation increase in April, according to Michael Klingensmith, publisher and CEO of the Star Tribune.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation reported a 5.7 percent Sunday gain and a 2.3 percent daily decline for the paper in its October release. And online, StarTribune.com had nearly 6.2 million visits and more than 1.5 million unique visitors in February, according to Compete, an online analytics ratings agency.
There's no blueprint yet for making money on digital media. But multiple news organizations are drawing up plans.
Currently there are only about three major media outlets -- the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Bloomberg -- that ring the register online. On Thursday, the New York Times announced plans it hopes will make it the fourth.
Its metered model for readership, which is similar to but more expensive than a Star Tribune version to be introduced later this year, will offer a number of print and online subscription options, including one that will ask online readers to sign up for a digital subscription plan at $15 a month after they've hit a 20-article monthly limit for free reading.
Rash Report: New news study shows Web's peril, promise
Many may view the shifts in the news industry as inside baseball -- but the very ability to be informed is in play.
By JOHN RASH, Star Tribune
Bit by bit, byte by byte, Americans are increasingly turning to the Internet for information, according to the annual "State of the News Media" report released Monday by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).
In answer to where they received "most of their news about national and international issues," only online readership rose from the prior year.
It increased 17 percent, while every other platform fell: local TV (-1.5 percent), network TV (-3.4 percent), printed newspapers (-5 percent), radio (-6 percent), magazines (-8.9 percent) and cable TV (-13.7 percent).
The growth in Internet usage is making the future of journalism an increasingly dramatic story line. And it's one with considerable consequences.
For the information industry, to be sure, but also for democracy and the informed electorate it depends on.
But so far this isn't a political story. In fact, despite the drumbeat from critics on the right and left, Americans aren't rejecting the mainstream media news model.
Indeed, PEJ found that the vast majority of what's consumed online is original reporting from professional media organizations, including newspapers and TV stations.
Clearly transformational technologies have changed how news is consumed. In the process, Internet intermediaries -- social networks like Facebook, device makers such as Apple and aggregators like Google -- are complicating efforts to extract revenue from readership, listenership and viewership.
This emerging shift in the media business model means that "the news industry is becoming more of a follower and less of a leader in these new layers of relationships," said Amy Mitchell, deputy director of PEJ and one of the coauthors of the report.
As with any relationship, the one between media content and distribution is two-sided. But that doesn't mean it is equal.
"This behavior pattern, the extent to which people are getting this online content from legacy providers, is a major part of the problem," said Mitchell, speaking of the challenge of longstanding mainstream media models.
"Because as people are moving online at a more rapid pace than ever before, the news industry that they are consuming has yet to find a way to create a significant revenue stream from those consumers."
Not all media suffers similarly. The PEJ reports that in 2010, revenue actually rose 17 percent for local TV, 8.4 percent for cable TV and 6.6 percent for network TV. That's in part because of TV's law of supply and demand.
The supply of commercials is about the same (despite what it seems like from your couch), but viewers are down. So even if advertising demand is static, fewer viewers per program means advertisers have to buy more commercials just to reach the same audience.
And thanks to a surge in spending on campaign ads made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United case, demand wasn't static. It was high, particularly for local TV.
Newspapers get relatively little campaign spending. And they don't have chronological commercial limitations like TV.
Newspaper revenues slid 6.4 percent in a year and 48 percent in four years. Nationally, circulation eroded 5 percent daily and 4.5 percent on Sundays.
This corrosive combination of lower revenues and circulation led to staffing cuts of another 3 to 4 percent last year, which was actually an improvement over previous years.
But the news isn't all bad for newspapers. Indeed, PEJ reports that when print and online readership is combined, many newspapers have larger audiences than ever before.
That's the case with the Star Tribune, which has also managed to record some recent circulation success. The paper is expected to report a circulation increase in April, according to Michael Klingensmith, publisher and CEO of the Star Tribune.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation reported a 5.7 percent Sunday gain and a 2.3 percent daily decline for the paper in its October release. And online, StarTribune.com had nearly 6.2 million visits and more than 1.5 million unique visitors in February, according to Compete, an online analytics ratings agency.
There's no blueprint yet for making money on digital media. But multiple news organizations are drawing up plans.
Currently there are only about three major media outlets -- the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Bloomberg -- that ring the register online. On Thursday, the New York Times announced plans it hopes will make it the fourth.
Its metered model for readership, which is similar to but more expensive than a Star Tribune version to be introduced later this year, will offer a number of print and online subscription options, including one that will ask online readers to sign up for a digital subscription plan at $15 a month after they've hit a 20-article monthly limit for free reading.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Ten Newspapers Who Do It Right
Here is an excerpt from a long article on 10 newspapers who are "doing it right." To read the entire article, click here.
10 Newspapers that Do It Right
By: Kristina Ackermann and Deena Higgs Nenad
Published: March 15, 2011
When we set out to feature 10 newspapers that "do it right," we didn't quite realize the magnitude of the project we were undertaking. That's not to say we thought that selecting 10 newspapers from a sea of thousands would be easy, we just underestimated the number of truly noteworthy ideas we would end up sorting through. Never mind the fact that we neglected to define what "it" was and what our criteria for doing it "right" would be.
We asked you for the best you've got - your brightest "a-ha!" moments and your most successful "we may as well try" endeavors - and you, dear readers, delivered the goods. We were amazed at the creativity and innovation demonstrated by newspapers small and large, daily and weekly, free and subscription-based. It quickly became apparent that we would be doing you a disservice if we only featured 10 newspapers, so we modified our strategy.
There were a handful of papers that stood out as obvious candidates: They had several areas of innovation that produced measurable results. Some of them were so excited to tell us about their projects that their submissions started to rival War and Peace (I'm looking at you, Times of Northwest Indiana). Other papers took a more focused route and stuck to one or two things they do expertly, such as hyperlocal content or coverage of high school sports. There was a lot of overlap among this second group - believe it or not, there's more than one newspaper that copied Groupon and launched a daily coupon program.
10 Newspapers that Do It Right
By: Kristina Ackermann and Deena Higgs Nenad
Published: March 15, 2011
When we set out to feature 10 newspapers that "do it right," we didn't quite realize the magnitude of the project we were undertaking. That's not to say we thought that selecting 10 newspapers from a sea of thousands would be easy, we just underestimated the number of truly noteworthy ideas we would end up sorting through. Never mind the fact that we neglected to define what "it" was and what our criteria for doing it "right" would be.
We asked you for the best you've got - your brightest "a-ha!" moments and your most successful "we may as well try" endeavors - and you, dear readers, delivered the goods. We were amazed at the creativity and innovation demonstrated by newspapers small and large, daily and weekly, free and subscription-based. It quickly became apparent that we would be doing you a disservice if we only featured 10 newspapers, so we modified our strategy.
There were a handful of papers that stood out as obvious candidates: They had several areas of innovation that produced measurable results. Some of them were so excited to tell us about their projects that their submissions started to rival War and Peace (I'm looking at you, Times of Northwest Indiana). Other papers took a more focused route and stuck to one or two things they do expertly, such as hyperlocal content or coverage of high school sports. There was a lot of overlap among this second group - believe it or not, there's more than one newspaper that copied Groupon and launched a daily coupon program.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Internet Now News Destination of Choice
Here's an excerpt from an AP article. To read the entire article, click here.
Report: Online news consumption only area of industry showing growth
Associated Press
NEW YORK - The rapid growth of smart phones and electronic tablets is making the Internet the destination of choice for consumers looking for news, a report released Monday said.
Local, network and cable television news, newspapers, radio and magazines all lost audience last year, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research organization that evaluates and studies the performance of the press. News consumption online increased 17 percent last year from the year before, the project said in its eighth annual State of the News Media survey.
The percentage of people who say they get news online at least three times a week surpassed newspapers for the first time. It was second only to local TV news as the most popular news platform and seems poised to pass that medium, too, project director Tom Rosenstiel said. Local TV news has been the most popular format since the 1960s, when its growth was largely responsible for the death of afternoon newspapers, he said.
"It was a milestone year," he said.
People are just becoming accustomed to having the Internet available in their pockets on phones or small tablets, he said.
Report: Online news consumption only area of industry showing growth
Associated Press
NEW YORK - The rapid growth of smart phones and electronic tablets is making the Internet the destination of choice for consumers looking for news, a report released Monday said.
Local, network and cable television news, newspapers, radio and magazines all lost audience last year, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research organization that evaluates and studies the performance of the press. News consumption online increased 17 percent last year from the year before, the project said in its eighth annual State of the News Media survey.
The percentage of people who say they get news online at least three times a week surpassed newspapers for the first time. It was second only to local TV news as the most popular news platform and seems poised to pass that medium, too, project director Tom Rosenstiel said. Local TV news has been the most popular format since the 1960s, when its growth was largely responsible for the death of afternoon newspapers, he said.
"It was a milestone year," he said.
People are just becoming accustomed to having the Internet available in their pockets on phones or small tablets, he said.
In Social Media, Libel Abounds but Few Sue
This article is specific to Minnesota (it's from the StarTribune), but it raises a generic issue that we all must think about. I see this as a good trend article.
In social media, why let the facts get in the way?
Libel abounds, but libel lawsuits are rare.
By Kevin Giles, Star Tribune
One Facebook user, angry over a dispute with a neighbor, ridicules her online as a thief and a liar. On Twitter, someone accuses a murder suspect of being a killer. A blogger discloses sensitive details about a political candidate's personal life.
In Minnesota, and everywhere else, a perplexing phenomenon has emerged as millions of people have their say in social media.
In today's world, libelous online comments are rampant -- and yet with the notable exception of the "Johnny Northside" blog case, very few people have filed lawsuits over reckless and untrue statements.
Court actions involving users on youth-dominated social media remain surprisingly low, suggesting a new outspoken culture that's more tolerant of lies, rude behavior and character assassination.
"They've come to accept this kind of hurly-burly Internet conversation as normal," said Mark Anfinson, a Minneapolis media attorney. "There are a lot of folks out there who never had a voice before. They now talk in a context just like in a bar or across the backyard fence."
While loose lips have become common in social media exchanges, consequences loom for people who launch false attacks that threaten to inflict serious harm on someone's reputation. Libel cases, often driven by anger and a quest for vengeance, can cost tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and result in unflattering publicity.
Few suits over comments
In Minnesota, only a handful of people have been sued for comments they made online and even fewer cases go to trial. Reasons for this, experts say, include:
•Attorneys can't sue Internet companies -- who have the deep pockets -- for what individual users say because of protection from the federal Communications Decency Act.
•A blurring between fact and fiction continues unabated on Internet sites.
•Many states have no laws to address the endless ways people fabricate information.
•Many online postings are never seen in the first place. Unlike permanent comments in newspapers, postings can slide past without being noticed -- but whether they ever disappear from databases remains in dispute.
•Online postings, depending on how they're delivered, can have narrow audiences.
Ordinary folks are held to the same legal standards as news reporters and anyone else who makes written statements in public, but few seem to know that -- or care.
"People do and say things online that they aren't likely to do in the physical world," said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School in Boston. Libel suits related to social media are rare nationwide, he said, in part because users can fire off instant replies to nasty comments.
"There's this feeling of engagement that people have available to them, tools they didn't have in the past," Ardia said.
In Minnesota, social media engages millions of residents who post comments on Facebook, My Space, Twitter, personal blogs and elsewhere. Some are citizen journalists, some are back porch commentators, but most are just chatterers who want a say in the world around them.
An estimated 3 million Minnesotans sign onto Facebook alone, although actual use is difficult to verify. Many offending comments relate to politics, religion and interpersonal relationships -- topics sure to inspire arguments in face-to-face conversations.
Social media, Ardia said, has made the world into one big chat with everyone speaking at once. The cacophony of voices seems to race at Mach speed, with new comments continually burying old ones, but experts say it's a mistake to presume libelous comments will disappear entirely.
Writer's responsibility
"The rule is you're responsible for what you say," said Minneapolis attorney Leita Walker. Whether posting on Facebook, writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, blogging or otherwise expressing an opinion, "you strive to be accurate and fair and make sure what you write is true. You don't want to repeat a rumor to find out the rumor isn't true."
This past week, a challenge over statements that Minneapolis blogger Johnny Northside made in 2009 led to a jury determination Friday that he must pay $60,000 in damages. Northside, whose real name is John Hoff, was sued by Jerry Moore, former director of the Jordan Area Community Council. Northside wrote about Moore's associations with a major mortgage fraud case that sent one man to prison for 16 years. Moore was never charged in the case.
Moore said posts by Hoff or anonymous people caused the University of Minnesota to fire him. In reply, Hoff defended his comments as protected speech, but the jurors disagreed.
Suits against bloggers -- often known as "citizen journalists" -- won't make much money for anyone seeking damages, said Jane Kirtley, a University of Minnesota professor of media law and ethics. "A lot of people recognize that these unaffiliated bloggers don't have a lot of financial resources."
That's another reason many victims don't sue.
Libel also can be hard to prove. Plaintiffs have to show damage to their reputations.
The motivation, then, for filing suit? Anger, outrage, a sense of being violated in a public way among friends and neighbors.
From the opposing point of view, a blogger might embrace free speech protections under the First Amendment. Or, more commonly, a caustic-tongued user on Facebook or My Space doesn't know the law and doesn't care.
Anfinson, who teaches a media law course at the University of St. Thomas, said younger people today worry far less about libeling someone because of a higher tolerance for online name-calling that older readers of newspapers won't accept.
To younger people, Ardia said, suing somebody seems like a heavy-handed, disproportionate way to respond to offending comments. But he also thinks it's hard to track much of the underlying turmoil.
Many people, instead of hiring attorneys, will send threatening letters and e-mails to people they think have done them harm, demanding that the offensive post be removed.
"The surface might seem very calm," Ardia said, "but below it there might be a lot more going on than we're aware of."
In social media, why let the facts get in the way?
Libel abounds, but libel lawsuits are rare.
By Kevin Giles, Star Tribune
One Facebook user, angry over a dispute with a neighbor, ridicules her online as a thief and a liar. On Twitter, someone accuses a murder suspect of being a killer. A blogger discloses sensitive details about a political candidate's personal life.
In Minnesota, and everywhere else, a perplexing phenomenon has emerged as millions of people have their say in social media.
In today's world, libelous online comments are rampant -- and yet with the notable exception of the "Johnny Northside" blog case, very few people have filed lawsuits over reckless and untrue statements.
Court actions involving users on youth-dominated social media remain surprisingly low, suggesting a new outspoken culture that's more tolerant of lies, rude behavior and character assassination.
"They've come to accept this kind of hurly-burly Internet conversation as normal," said Mark Anfinson, a Minneapolis media attorney. "There are a lot of folks out there who never had a voice before. They now talk in a context just like in a bar or across the backyard fence."
While loose lips have become common in social media exchanges, consequences loom for people who launch false attacks that threaten to inflict serious harm on someone's reputation. Libel cases, often driven by anger and a quest for vengeance, can cost tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and result in unflattering publicity.
Few suits over comments
In Minnesota, only a handful of people have been sued for comments they made online and even fewer cases go to trial. Reasons for this, experts say, include:
•Attorneys can't sue Internet companies -- who have the deep pockets -- for what individual users say because of protection from the federal Communications Decency Act.
•A blurring between fact and fiction continues unabated on Internet sites.
•Many states have no laws to address the endless ways people fabricate information.
•Many online postings are never seen in the first place. Unlike permanent comments in newspapers, postings can slide past without being noticed -- but whether they ever disappear from databases remains in dispute.
•Online postings, depending on how they're delivered, can have narrow audiences.
Ordinary folks are held to the same legal standards as news reporters and anyone else who makes written statements in public, but few seem to know that -- or care.
"People do and say things online that they aren't likely to do in the physical world," said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School in Boston. Libel suits related to social media are rare nationwide, he said, in part because users can fire off instant replies to nasty comments.
"There's this feeling of engagement that people have available to them, tools they didn't have in the past," Ardia said.
In Minnesota, social media engages millions of residents who post comments on Facebook, My Space, Twitter, personal blogs and elsewhere. Some are citizen journalists, some are back porch commentators, but most are just chatterers who want a say in the world around them.
An estimated 3 million Minnesotans sign onto Facebook alone, although actual use is difficult to verify. Many offending comments relate to politics, religion and interpersonal relationships -- topics sure to inspire arguments in face-to-face conversations.
Social media, Ardia said, has made the world into one big chat with everyone speaking at once. The cacophony of voices seems to race at Mach speed, with new comments continually burying old ones, but experts say it's a mistake to presume libelous comments will disappear entirely.
Writer's responsibility
"The rule is you're responsible for what you say," said Minneapolis attorney Leita Walker. Whether posting on Facebook, writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, blogging or otherwise expressing an opinion, "you strive to be accurate and fair and make sure what you write is true. You don't want to repeat a rumor to find out the rumor isn't true."
This past week, a challenge over statements that Minneapolis blogger Johnny Northside made in 2009 led to a jury determination Friday that he must pay $60,000 in damages. Northside, whose real name is John Hoff, was sued by Jerry Moore, former director of the Jordan Area Community Council. Northside wrote about Moore's associations with a major mortgage fraud case that sent one man to prison for 16 years. Moore was never charged in the case.
Moore said posts by Hoff or anonymous people caused the University of Minnesota to fire him. In reply, Hoff defended his comments as protected speech, but the jurors disagreed.
Suits against bloggers -- often known as "citizen journalists" -- won't make much money for anyone seeking damages, said Jane Kirtley, a University of Minnesota professor of media law and ethics. "A lot of people recognize that these unaffiliated bloggers don't have a lot of financial resources."
That's another reason many victims don't sue.
Libel also can be hard to prove. Plaintiffs have to show damage to their reputations.
The motivation, then, for filing suit? Anger, outrage, a sense of being violated in a public way among friends and neighbors.
From the opposing point of view, a blogger might embrace free speech protections under the First Amendment. Or, more commonly, a caustic-tongued user on Facebook or My Space doesn't know the law and doesn't care.
Anfinson, who teaches a media law course at the University of St. Thomas, said younger people today worry far less about libeling someone because of a higher tolerance for online name-calling that older readers of newspapers won't accept.
To younger people, Ardia said, suing somebody seems like a heavy-handed, disproportionate way to respond to offending comments. But he also thinks it's hard to track much of the underlying turmoil.
Many people, instead of hiring attorneys, will send threatening letters and e-mails to people they think have done them harm, demanding that the offensive post be removed.
"The surface might seem very calm," Ardia said, "but below it there might be a lot more going on than we're aware of."
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